All local authorities are required by the Government to have a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) which, put simply, lays out the plans for cycling demand in the local area for the next few years. This plan then helps ensure a consistent approach to building a cycling and walking network.
Locally, Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire decided to create a joint plan for the D2N2 region and this was started back in 2017. After a long-winded process and using data collected in 2018, the “final draft” version of the plan was published in 2022 (dated 2021).
There was then a public consultation exercise in early 2023 and a number of DCG members provided feedback. DCG created a 12 page document suggesting improvements and submitted this to the consultation process. The Derby City Council details of the consultation can be seen here (note that the links from that site no longer work). The consultation exercise received 568 responses.
Subsequently, no updated “final” version of the LCWIP was produced. This was expected to include modifications arising from the feedback provided during the consultation exercise.
After confusion as to the “final” status of the LCWIP, this was recently clarified by asking formal questions of EMCCA and by submitting a Freedom of Information request to Nottinghamshire County Council (thanks to David Rhead). This stated “The D2N2 LCWIP document and programmes published on the D2N2 LCWIP webpage are the current versions. Consultation on the content of the LCWIP document was undertaken between December 2022 and 2023 and responses to this have been reviewed, but there haven’t been any amendments to the document since. The published document/programmes therefore remain the current versions.”
So, a new low in public consultation!
The 568 responses received during the consultation exercise in early 2023 (including the detailed response from DCG) resulted in zero modifications to the draft document (which didn’t even have the date updated to a time subsequent to the consultation!).
As key aspects of the DCG feedback were that the document was based on out of date data and had been produced following a flawed process, we certainly feel that modifications were necessary before finalising the document.
The “final” versions of the LCWIP plus implementation plans (not updated since 2022) can be found here.
Responsibility for the LCWIP has now passed to the regional mayor (EMCCA). A new and better version of the LCWIP is well overdue and we’ve been calling for this to be created for a number of years. The EMCCA say “Refreshing the LCWIP is one work area under exploration”. We hope that this “exploration” quickly reaches a conclusion and a new LCWIP is soon available.